Bologna to Rimini

 A busy and tiring day today, but also really good.

We started off with an early run in Bologna along part of the longest portico in the world. It is the Portico do San Luca and it is nearly 4 kilometres long with 666 arches.

It is also very steep uphill on the outward journey up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca.

We made it most of the way, but didn't get right to the top, as it was a bit too far and we had a train to catch.

We caught the train from Bologna to the seaside town of Rimini.

As soon as we got off the train we preferred it to Bologna which was pretty polluted and smoggy, whereas Rimini was bright, clean and airy.

We went on a lovely walk this afternoon, starting with a stroll along the beach.

It looks a bit strange at this time of year, but in the summer the left of the photo is filled with umbrellas,sun loungers and sunbathers, and the raised area is a walkway to keep the sea breezes away.

There is a good promenade and a marina complete with a lighthouse.

But best thing of all is that Rimini was one of the richest towns in the Roman Empire, so the guide book tells me. This was in terms of wealth, culture and heritage. After listening to The Rest is History for many hours whilst driving, it is a big favourite thing for me.

Julius Caesar crossed the famous Rubicon River near here and made a legendary speech in the Forum at Rimini.

The Emperor Augustus built a fantastic arch into the town.

And the Emporer Tiberius built a Bridge and Amphitheatre.

Over time a lot of the town was destroyed, and the Amphitheatre is now mostly gone and a school now stands in what used to be the seating area.

World War Two also did a lot of damage, but it still has some lovely squares and painted buildings.

I think you can tell that I like this place.

Bologna, Italy

We arrived yesterday early evening, and set off this morning to explore. "Due cappuccino, per fervore" I said to the café owner next door in my best Italian accent.

"Do you want coffee?" he replied. "Cappuccino" said I, one or two he asked, "two please", I replied.

Still not sure what I did wrong. Anyway, a nice start to the day.

Once out in Bologna we set off under a portico, apparently there are more than 40 kilometres of them in the city.

Very soon we came to our first famous sight, a tiny window.....

..... with a nice view of a river.

Good, but not a patch on Venice.

They definitely didn't have the next sight in Venice though. Two giant towers that were built between 1,109 and 1,119. Unfortunately they are closed for repairs at the moment and like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, one of the towers leans very badly due to subsidence.

We carried on and found many more porticos, some with beautiful paintings and arches.

Some with more graffiti than others.

Oslo to home

 It's our final day in Norway and our ship has docked back in Oslo ready for our flight home this afternoon.

We have been on a last walk along the Oslo waterfront, and it was around -8 centigrade.

There is a river that flows into the fjord and it is partly frozen, but the Ice is very thick at slower sections around lots of modern apartment blocks.

Interesting facts about Oslo - it was founded in around 1050 on the other side of the river to where the centre of town is today.

In 1397 the country was taken over and ruled by Denmark, and in 1624 there was a massive fire that destroyed the whole town.

King Christian IV of Denmark came to visit after the fire and pointed to a new spot on the ground and commanded that that was where the town would be rebuilt, and renamed Christiania.

I don't think that the Norwegians were super keen on this ruling, and this monument seems to be rather sarcastic.

In 1814 they got their country back and started ruling it themselves again and in 1925 they renamed the city Oslo.

We carried on our walk to the Town Hall, a very imposing and austere looking building that apparently celebrates all of the workers of Oslo.

Inside it is covered in murals of Norwegians either working or jumping around with very few clothes on.

Kristiansand

Our last day today and in the morning we passed by the southern most point of Norway.

It was a lighthouse on a little island with a very interesting history, and we sailed by and saw it in the distance.

On this holiday we have seen the northern, southern and western points. I think that the eastern point borders with Russia so is not so accessible, although we did get very near to it on a previous Hurtigrurten cruise.

Our destination today was Kristiansand, and we were expecting it to be the warmest port on our trip. However, it was minus 5 or lower with quite a significant wind chill.

Right on the seafront just opposite to where we docked was a museum in an old silo and an amazing theatre made of glass and wavey wooden cladding. It was also the first time that we saw mini icebergs floating down the river to the fjord.

The town was a reasonable size with a nice church and decorative buildings.

However, yet again we found another beautiful lake to wander around. This one had little undulating paths and I managed to slip over for the fourth time this holiday. Fortunately it was in slow motion so no damage done.

However possibly the best sight of the day was a frozen fjord.

Bergen

Which is the wettest city in Europe? Yes, it's Bergen. On all of our previous visits it has been raining. Not today though.

The sun shone brightly as we walked through narrow street full of pretty wooden houses.

Obviously, we had to find a hill to hike up, although we did very briefly discuss going up on the very convenient funicular railway.

That plan was dismissed, but as we have walked this route before, and there was lots of other people around, it was sadly lacking in the element of danger that was there every other day of our trip.

Having said that, the route down through a pine forest with frozen streams and huge mounds of moss everywhere made up for this by being absolutely beautiful.

Åndalsnes

We had a sea day yesterday as we make our way rapidly down the coast of Norway. It was a mild, mostly wet day and I got my steps in walking round the promenade deck.

The sun did come out behind the Seven Sisters mountains, and later everyone took a sip of cod liver oil because we crossed back down from the Arctic Circle.

Today we stopped at Åndalsnes and the sun came back out.

It was another stop at a small town with not a lot of highlights on the map. Most of the other passengers either took a train ride or went up to the top of a mountain on a gondola, but we went for a hike.

It was only a few minutes to the start, and someone had put a lot of effort into making this hike a memorable one.

There were helpful markers and a steel walkway to help us across the ice at the bottom, and then excellent paths up the mountain.

We made it about 250 vertical metres up the mountain, although this was nowhere near to the top, and then started our descent on a new path around to the side.

To start with it was steep but okay, and then we had to go straight across a massive boulder field, whilst trying to look out for tiny red markers.

The one kilometre across this area took 49 minutes. Then after the boulders someone had kindly put in metal ropes to help across the scariest bits.

Of course we eventually got safely down, and had a lovely stroll along the side of the fjord back to the ship.

Sunset wasn't until at least 3.30pm and in the minutes before it the clouds came down the sun just managed to send a few rays almost horizontally on to the trees and mountains opposite. The light was incredible and I took this photo of the mountains and the reflections in the water.

I was going to enter this into the daily competition, but quite a few other people had already put in the same view.

By the way, I didn't win in the last couple of days and I lost out to photos of reindeer and husky dogs.